FTSE 100 movers: Miners and oil stocks drag down market over China woes

The FTSE 100 continued to fall on Thursday, down 156.34 points (2.57%) to 5,917.04 by mid-afternoon.

Miners again dragged the market down amid growing concerns about China, one of the world’s largest commodities consumers, after the country had its shortest trading day in history.

For the second time this week - and, in fact, the second time ever - China's new 'circuit-breaker' kicked in and froze trading just 30 minutes after the open. The Shanghai Composite Index finished down 7.04% after the half-hour trading day, at 3,125. Its losses over the last four days now come to 11.7%, and could see the biggest weekly loss since the peak of the summer crash on 21 August 2015.

It was thought that the weakening of the yuan in the morning first triggered the losses, which then spread like wildfire across the region. Traders and analysts remained concerned about a weaker yuan causing capital flight, and a knock-on effect of currency depreciation in other Asian countries.

"People outside of China just go 'woah', and think the rest of the region should be bombing out as well", said Parry International Trading managing director Gavin Parry, saying China's Thursday losses set off a "contagion effect in sentiment". As a result, Anglo American led the fallers, down over 10%, while sector peers Glencore, BHP Billiton and Antofagasta weren’t too far behind.

Falling oil prices made matters worse for the miners as well as oil companies Royal Dutch Shell and BP. Prices edged closer to $30 a barrel on Thursday, with Brent Crude down 2.83% to $33.26 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate had dropped 3.06% to $32.93. It follows geopolitical flare-ups in the Middle East between Iran and Saudi Arabia, compounded by oversupply concerns continuing to dominate market sentiment.

Aberdeen Asset Management also plunged nearly 9% after it went ex-dividend today, compounded by the fall in global markets. China’s woes also had an impact on the stock, which revealed in November its full year underlying pre-tax profits were flat due to the slump in Asian and emerging market equities last year.

With nearly all FTSE 100 stocks in decline, only one company managed to buck the trend. Randgold Resources rose over 2%, benefitting from the safety of traders investing in gold. Spot gold was up 0.9% to $1,103.53 by mid-afternoon.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,422.00p 2.17%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 242.00p -10.50%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 246.30p -8.78%
Glencore (GLEN) 80.00p -6.81%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 665.40p -6.20%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 408.20p -5.88%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,416.00p -5.44%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,402.00p -5.33%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,425.00p -5.25%
Old Mutual (OML) 156.00p -4.76%
BP (BP.) 327.10p -4.76%